Craigslist can likely help. I would consider returning that wood and researching a bit further. I have found a couple local sources that offer hardwoods for far less than HD. It is generally rough sawn, but I think that adds fun to the project.

You could likely get that same species for half the money, especially if it is a species which grows regionally.

I drive 50 miles into New Hampshire to get decent hardwood selection about 1/3 the cost of HD (they have a shorts bin and occasional clearance sales on the shorts). Maybe Wisconsin offers that for you?

-- Dave, New England - “We are made to persist. that's how we find out who we are.” ― Tobias Wolff

If you have a jointer and/or a planer you are better off buying from a lumber distributer in your area…..You can buy S2S (surfaced 2 sides) for example, for about half the price of the big box stores ….Then you can mill to dimensions….

Find a hardwoods dealer. You would think that would be more expensive but they have better prices on random widths and lengths and maybe only one side straightlined. Do you have a menards nearby. They sell oak like you got at HD, but they also sell the random sizes with some knots for a lot cheaper per bf.

There is a guy here who gets his from a hardwood dealer in Desplaines. If I remember correctly, that is close to the windy city. http://lumberjocks.com/topics/50367 Go buy a jointer and a planer off of craigslist and discover saving money and having fun by buying lumber in the rough. You will pay for your hardware every time you buy rough lumber. You will also discover the joy of the freedom of casting off the chains of 3/4 inch lumber.

Find the dealer the pros buy from. The place is probably by a railroadtrack somewhere. It may have been in business 100 years ormore. You get the idea. They won’t have it all laid outnice and may be a bit gruff, but they’ll treat you right inthe end.

It takes a lot of effort to gear up to it, but the absolute cheapest way is to cut, mill and dry your own. Once you do that you can get a pile of oak that size for free. As gfadvm points out, though, any amount of prep work you can cut out in the lumber acquisition process can save money. What you paid for is convenience. The more work you can put into the process, the more you can save.

Well that might be true if you live in a forest. In my little slice of heaven a full-grown mesquite bush will dull 27 sawmill blades to produce approximately 2.5 board feet of lumber, none of it wider than 2” and no straight pieces longer than 15”.

Edit: I should add that the nearest walnut/cherry/white oak/red oak/apple tree is probably a 13 hour ride…There are quite a few lemon trees in the yards up in Green Valley however, I wonder if I can sneak out there and chop a few down while the snowbirds are up north for the summer….